t^54 tt^ 




(SU 



vttn 





Illustrated 



F 




Qass 



/, c^ 



O/fi Green Bay 



3A e^V^o-raV-i '5>€-3\'\':^^^t lV\a-ri:\r\ 



Old GREEN BAY 



ILLUSTRATED 



^ 



Printed at 

The Cheltenham Press 

of New York 
M D C C C X C I X 






■01 

D£ Copyrighted by i-%a 

fj Deborah Beaumont Martin ,?? 

Sv Sophie Beaumont _»8 

||C MDCCCXCIX ^jl 



A List of the pictures in this Book 

Map Frontispiece 

Page 

Green Bav 7 

Red Banks 9 

Lime-Stone Ridge 12 

Tablet on Site of Mission 13 

Ostensorium 14 

Rapides des Peres 1 15 

Dutchman's Creek 16 

Site of Masca's Mill 17 

Fort Howard, Major Haller Landing at Green Bav Pier 

from Government Barge 20 

Coffee- Pot belonging to General Brooks 21 

Fort Howard in 1863 22 

Part of General Taylor's Dinner Set 23 

Surgeon's Quarters 24 

lames D. Dotv's Residence at Menomineeville . . . . 2^ 

Henry S. Baird's Office 2^ 

[ames D. Dotv's Office 26 

Ruins of the Agency House 27 

The Old fohn Lawe Mansion, now owned bv David H. 

Grignon 29 

5 



A L/// of Pictures 



Page 

The Pollv Lawe Piano 30 

The Tank Cottage 31 

The Martin Homestead 3^ 

The Whitnev House 3 ^ 

Old Stone Tower 36 

Sailing Craft 37 

Captain John Cotton's Homestead, Built in 1842 ... 38 

The Hagemeister Doorwav 38 

The [ourdan House 39 

The House was solidlv built of' Hewn Logs .... 40 

Ruined Log Cabin of the Reputed Dauphin 40 

Miniature of Williams 41 

Tureen belonging to Williams's Dinner-Set 41 

A Bit of Holland 43 

The Lawton House 44 

A Typical Green Bav Street 45 

Octagon House 46 

Old Brewerv 46 

Homestead of I. G. Beaumont 47 

A. C. Robinson Residence, 47 

Irwin Homestead 48 

The Wilco.x House, De Pere, Built by Randall \^'ilco.\ . 49 

The ^^'hitne\• Doorwa\- 49 




Green Bay 



Green Bay 



" ^ T length, helzuccii the Luke of the Illinois and Lake 
±^^Si/ perior appecired a long bax Ciilled ' (L\\ Pi/ants,' 
at the end of -ichich is the JMission of Saint Francois 
Xavier. 

" The most enlightened and best instructed in the Uiith 
Lire those -icho live at the e\tren/it\ of this ba\. It bci/rs 
this /kime, zuhich is the same as the savages give to those 
zcho dicell near the sea, perhaps because the odor of the 
marshes ichich surround the ha\ is so/iieichat simihir to 
that of the sec/." — Relations des Jesuites iLins Li Nou- 
velle France, idyi. 





Red Banks 



Red Banks 



K I SH-K E-K W AX-TE-NO 



'* Here is the land. 

Shaggy with wood. 
With its old valles. 

Mound and flood. 
But the heritors ? 

Fled like the flood^ s foamy 

THE traditional Garden of Eden of the Winnebago 
tribe. The Winnepig'ous, or " Men of the Sea," 
belonged neither to Alg'onkin nor Dakota stock, 
and were, therefore, distinct and alien from the surround- 
ing Indian tribes. It was to this mysterious nation that 
Jean Nicolet, first of Northwestern explorers, was sent 
by Champlain in the summer of 1634. They were then 
dwelling-, it is supposed, near the mouth of Fox River, 
where the city of Green Bay now stands. 

The red slope of sandy bluff some twelve miles to the 
northeast, known to later generations as Red Banks, was 



old Green Bay 



to them a sacred spot — the birthplace of their nation. It 
was, moreover, advantageous as a point of defence, and 
within a few years a Hne of ancient earthworks could be 
distinctly traced, running parallel with the bluff, and at 
right angles in an easterly direction. Forty years ago the 
ruins of this fortification are described 'as most interest- 
ing. It was computed at that time that the earthworks 
were originally seven feet high and provided on the three 
exposed sides with regular bastions, while a double inden- 
tation through the centre of the inclosure showed where 
the great lodge stood. 

Down the steep bank to the water below could be noted 
the remains of steps cut into the clay soil. A few rods to 
the northward, outside the walls, was a high mound of 
earth partially carried away by the wearing of the cliff, 
Imt of which traces remain to-day. Bits of clay pottery 
and copper ornaments found here from time to time, go 
to show that it was a popular camping-ground for the 
Indian while living, and a much desired resting place in 
death, while the fragments of flint with which the soil is 
strewn tell the story that in some remote summer day 
an arrow-cutter here plied his trade, and sitting at the door 
of his wigwam looked forth, as we do now, on the misty 
blue of the bay and the shaggy woods to the eastward. 

It was the ]\Ienominee Indians who bestowed upon this 
grassy plateau the name of Kish-ke-kwan-te-no. '" The 
place that slopes to the cedars ; " the French named it " La 
Cap des Puants." 

The legend of Red Banks, as told many years ago by 
Okeewa, an Indian wise-woman, is this : 

Two powerful tribes. Sauks and Outagamies, entered 
into a league to gain control of the land and intrenched 
themselves on this height. They ruled the whole coun- 
try. The forests, eastward, were full of deer, the waters 
of the bay were full of fish, and they possessed the whole. 
The IMenominees or Folle-Avoines across the bay, feared 
and dreaded their powerful neighbors, and in the early 
spring of a year long ago they sent messengers to the 
tribes toward Lake Michigan and Lake Superior, calling 



old Green Bay 



on them to join in driving away these over-aggressive peo- 
ple who wished to rule the land. The allies responded 
\villingly enough, for the Indian was ever ready for the 
war-path. The birch-l)ark canoes crowded through Porte 
de Mort in shoals, bearing Chippewas, Pottowattomies, 
and Ottawas ready equipped for war, hideous in paint and 
feathers, their faces barred in black and red, their hair 
tied up in strange device, great bows and quivers filled 
with fiint-tipped arrows, slung on their backs. The ren- 
dezvous was at Red River, and for two miles along the 
beach the canoes were packed so thick that no more 
could be crowded in. Then, when night fell, swiftly and 
noiselessly the besiegers put out from shore. Silently 
they paddled their light craft to where, on a wide plateau 
some eighty-five feet in height, a line of earthworks 
showed black against the blackness of the forest. The 
canoes were beached under the shadow of the bluff and 
out of reach of arrows from above : then, following the 
curving shore to where the land sloped to the valley, a 
party of warriors made their way to the wooded heights, 
in numbers sufficient to surround the fort so that none 
could escape. One only of the doomed inmates discovered 
the enemy — a girl who had that day been given, against 
her will, to be the wife of a Sauk lover, made her way 
back to her father's lodge. She slipped through the lines 
of besiegers like a wraith, and so noiselessly that the super- 
stitious savages believed they had seen a spirit. Rushing 
into the fort she gave the alarm. " We are all dead," she 
cried, but the drowsy inmates gave no heed : what had 
they to fear, the most powerful confederation of the West ? 
They knew when gray dawn disclosed the well-laid plan 
of siege. Protected by the bluff,- the Menominees con- 
trolled the water supply, and torture of thirst was soon 
added to the horrors of siege. Clay vessels attached to 
cords were let down at night into the water below, but 
the cords were cut before they touched the coveted wave, 
and the taunt of their tormentors rang mocking on the 
still air — " Come down and drink, there is water cold and 
clear, dashing on the shore." Desperate sorties were made 



O/d Green Bay 



with death and torture as the result, but at last super- 
natural aid came to their rescue. 

To a young brave, after an absolute fast of ten days, was 
vouchsafed a vision, and he thus addressed his compan- 
ions — " Listen ! last night there stood by me a young man 
clothed in white raiment, who said, ' He whom you behold 
was alive once like you. I died and now live forever. 
Trust in me and I will deliver you. At night a deep sleep 
will fall upon your enemies ; go forth boldly and silently 
and you shall escape.' " 

The weary battle-worn remnant within the fort be- 
lieved the vision. As was predicted, they eluded their tor- 
mentors, but never again was Red Banks inhabited as 
before. 




" A NOTHER prominent feature in the topography 

LjL of eastern Wisconsin is the cliff or escarpment of 

X .^ lime-stone resembling the ' Mountain Ridge ' of 

western New York, extending along the shore of Green Bay. 

" It constitutes the cliff along the east shore of Lake 

Winnebago and intercepts the flow of the rivers west of 

it, in their course toward Lake Michigan, turning them 

northward into Green Bay." — Lapham's " Antiquities of 

Wisconsin." 



NEAR THIS SPOT 
STOOD THE CHAPEL OF ST FRAN^" 
BUILT IN THE WINTER OF 16'^ 

FATHER CLAUDE ALLOlj 

AS THE CENTRE OF HIS WORK' , 

!N CHRISTIANISING THE INDIANS 

OF WISCONSIN. 

THIS MEMORIAL TABLET 

WAS ERECTED BY THE CITIZENS OF DE PEKE 

AND UNVEILED BY THE - 

STATE hISrORlCAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN 

SEPTEMBER b. 1899. 



fc^ 



ON the second day of December, 1669, Claude Al- 
louez, Priest of the Society of Jesus, landed at the 
extremity of Green Bay. He passed the winter in 
this vicinity and when spring- opened made a canoe trip 
up the Outagamie River, which took its name from the 
brave, dominant tribe of Outagamies or Fox Indians. At 
a point just below the last dash of rapids, where the river 
foams over its rocky bed before it sweeps out on its five- 
mile course to the Bay, Pere Allouez decided to erect his 
mission house. 

It was a central point from which to carry on the work 
of evangelization, for all along the Fox-Wisconsin water- 
ways, and on the Bay shore, was massed a great aggre- 
gation of Indian humanity, Algonkins driven westward 
by their fierce enemies, the Iroquois, to this safe retreat. 

In the summer of 1670, the mission house was built of 
rough bark, after the Indian mode of construction. This 
structure was superseded later by a more substantial one 
of timber with surrounding stockade. 

At Saint Francois Xavier, Nicolas Perrot, first Gov- 
ernor of the great Northwest, made his headquarters. 
Perrot held his commission from Le Febvre de la Barre, 
Governor of New France, and the power vested in him 

13 



O/d Green Bay 



was absolute. He was a shrewd, intelligent man, a 
coiircur dc bois of the best type, trained by the Jesuits, and 
a devoted servant of the church. With the Indians he ex- 
hibited keen insight and comprehension : he trapped them 
in their own wily fashion, and confounded them with what 
they regarded as supernatural knowledge. It was at times 
desperately dangerous work, but during his administra- 
tion, Perrot held successfully for New France the ter- 




ritory from Mackinac to the Mississijipi River and gained 
the respect and confidence of his Indian allies. 

Within the hospitable shelter at Rapides des Peres 
Father Jacques Marquette rested after his difficult jour- 
ney to the Illinois, and here he transcribed and enlarged 
his journal from brief notes made by the way. 

14 



Old Green Bay 



The mission house was on the direct route to the Mis- 
sissippi, and men famous in history lod.e^ed there on their 
journey westward. Greysolon Dukith, the gallant leader 
of courciirs dc bois, young Baron La Ilontan, who had 
crossed the ocean to view the sights of the New World, 
and Father Louis Hennepin, whose book narrating his 
wanderings gave a picturesque, if not an entirely ac- 
curate, account of his adventures in the West. 

In 1687 the mission house was almost entirely dcstroved 
by fire, the work of treacherous savages. In the terror and 
confusion that ensued the priests were mindful of their 
most valued treasure — a beautiful silver ostensorium— 
presented to the mission by 'Sieur Perrot. This with all 
haste they buried, intending to recover it at some future 
time, and then took flight for Mackinac, to tell of the ruin 
that had befallen their home. The mission house was 
never rebuilt, for the power of France was on the wane, 
and Jesuit priest, as well as fort commandant and courcur 
de bois, found it expedient to remain within the shelter of 
the home colony. 

In 1802, one hundred and fifteen years after this final 
departure of the Jesuit fathers, a French habitant at La 
Baye determined to build his cabin at Rapides des Peres; 
scratching the ground with his queer forked stick for 
plough, he unearthed an ostensorium of fine workmanship, 
bearing around its base the legend, " Ce soldi a este dotiiic 
par M. Nicolas Perrot a la mission de St. Francois Xa-rier 
en la Bave des Pnants. 1686." 




Rapides des Peres 
15 




Dutchman s L'lerk 



Du 



TCHMAN S 



Cr 



EEK 



A SLEEPY l)ro\vn stream, gliding smoothly along 
between overhanging bushes, at intervals form- 
ing shallow rapids over ledges of glistening stone, 
■ Dutchman's Creek " is little changed from the early days 
of the century, when it was known as " La Riviere Glaise." 
It was on the north shore of this creek that Charles 
Reaume, that quaint figure in Wisconsin history, pur- 
chased an arpcnt of land and erected a snug cabin accord- 
ing to voyagcnr fashion. It was of logs firmly fitted to- 
gether with stout wooden pins, slab-covered, chinked with 
nuul plaster, and with a rough stone chimney of irregular 
proportions ; there was a garden and a spreading corn- 
jjatch watched over by a trusty dog, Robasto, trained by 
Reaume to chase away the thievish l)lackl)irds. 

Charles Reaume, jugc a paix, de la Daye Vcrtc, exer- 
cised legal jurisdiction from Prairie du Chien to Vin- 
cennes, and from the mists of the past rises this odd per- 
sonality so alien to modern prejudices and methods — his 
scantily furnished log cabin close to the little stream, his 
law library — a volume of Blackstone and a copy of the 

i6 



O/d Green Bay 



" Coutunie dc i'aris " — his irascible questioning^ of cul- 
prits, his seemingly absurd decisions, his old clumsy jack- 
knife that summoned a witness as surely as a printed war- 
rant. 

It was the period when land was meted out by arpcnts, 
and boundaries defined by a crooked stick or an indenta- 
tion in the river bank, when agreements were made until 
" Such time as the sugar trees should stop running " and 
when a Frenchman bound himself to put up for an Indian 
cabin " a stone chinmey with mortar, from the ground to 
the raising plate, for one keg of fine maple sugar." There 
were marriage ceremonies to be performed, the binding of 
engages to employers, and looking over the legal docu- 
ments of that day all signed by one hand, one realizes that 
the duties of Charles Reaume, jnge a paix, were no sine- 
cure. 

In 1812 a primitive saw-mill stood on La Riviere Glaise, 
owned by Pierre Grignon and operated by Dominick Bru- 
nette, a typical Creole. What King George did not own 
was not worth owning in Baye Verte at that time, and 
when war was declared betw^een the United States and 




Site of Masca's Mill 
17 



old Green Bay 



Great Britain, mill and miller were claimed as royal prop- 
erty. 

The Green Bay Canadians were all royalists in those 
days, swore by King George and made great bonfires in 
his honor, but all the same Dominick, or Alasca, as he was 
nick-named, refused to grind corn for the King without 
toll, and thereby trouble ensued. " Masca shall not cheat 
the King, though he may cheat all the rest of the world," 
swore Colonel Robert Dickson, the King's deputy, but 
threats and curses alike slipped easily ofif the genial Creole. 
while the mill ground out slowly its meagre allotment of 
grain. 

As Colonel Dickson put it, " Times are hard, two ruf- 
fles and no shirt, plenty of land but no wheat," when one 
day in early spring came a courier with the glad news 
that peace was concluded and that the Americans were to 
take possession. 

In the year 1818 Peter Ulrich. the " Dutchman." mi- 
grated to Green Bay, and settled himself on the southern 
shore of La Riviere Glaise. and lo ! within a year's space 
the French appellation had disappeared, and Dutchman's 
Creek was the assured name for all time. 

Colonel John Bowyer, first of American settlers and 
government representatives, reached Green Bay the sum- 
mer after peace had been declared. President IMadison 
made good choice when he selected this gallant officer, 
with a dash of French blood in his veins, to make the 
initial step toward ])lacating the grouty English traders 
at La Baye and their Indian allies. Judge Reaume hav- 
ing by this time removed to Little Kakalin, Colonel 
Bowyer took possession of the old man's home on Dutch- 
man's creek. 

The mill still stood at the head of the stream, Peter 
Ulrich was his neighbor on the opposite bank, and at cer- 
tain seasons the water was so shallow that stepping-stones 
were all-sufificient in order to make crossing. To the 
northeast across Fox River stood the more pretentious 
homes of the patroons of Green Bay — the (jrignons and 
Lawes — but Colonel Bowyer's hospitality matched their 

18 



Old Green Bay 



own, and canoes were in constant demand to ferry across 
the water ; while over their wine Colonel Bowyer and 
Louis Grignon discussed a possible marriage between 
the Colonel's nephew, Henry Bowyer, and Grignon's hand- 
some daughter Charlotte. This scheme was frustrated 
by the drowning of young Bowyer. Charlotte — Mrs. 
Harteau — died an old woman many years after. 

Where the railroad spans the creek to-day a timber 
from the original mill-dam juts out into the stream; the 
foundation logs of the wagon bridge are of the same old 
stufT, with a wooden pin of Acadian days still visible in the 
water-fretted wood. 



-l/^^^-^ ^->^i^^ 








Major Haller Landing at (Jrct-n Bay Fier tVoni Cro\crnnifnt Barge 



Fort Howard 



OX the twenty-sixtli day of July, 1816, sailed from 
.Mackinac for Green Bay the schooners Wash- 
intrton, Wayne. Mink, and the sloop Amelia. On 
board were Colonel Miller of the Third Reg'iment, Colonel 
Chambers of the Rities. Major Gratiot of the Enq;ineers, a 
detachment of artillery under Captain Pierce, and four 
companies of the Third Infantry. The fleet, beating up 
against adverse winds, entered the mouth of Fox River on 
August 7th ; the troops disembarked and Major Gratiot 
immediately looked for a proper site on which to erect 
fortifications. He finally fixed on the position where the 
old h>cnch fort La Baye formerly stood. 

The appropriation by Government for fortifications at 
Green Bay, in the years 1816-19, inclusive, was $21,000; 



old Green Bay 




the amount expended, ac- 
cording to official author- 
ity, was $20,477.60. A 
generous stipend, gauged 
by the standard of those 
days. 

It was a tidy httle fort 
when completed, with 
broad-roofed, roomy quar- 
ters for officers and men, 
a sally-port fronting the 
river with guard - house 
at the side, and corner 
block-houses from which 
frowned ordnance suffi- 
cient to intimidate the 
hordes of hostile redskins 
in the vicinity — one twelve-pound iron cannon, an excel- 
lent gun, one six-pounder, and one nine-pound brass how- 
itzer, pronounced unserviceable. 

The name of Howard was bestowed upon the fort 
when completed in memory of General Benjamin Howard, 
U. S. A. 

Major Zachary Taylor commanded at the Green Bay 
post in these first years of its existence and the officers 
under him numbered six captains, three first lieutenants, 
and three second lieutenants, in all 506 men, with a regi- 
mental band of sixteen musicians. 

This early mention of a fine military band at once places 
a student of Fort Howard's history in touch with its dis- 
tinctive characteristic. For, though conducted with all 
the pomp and rigid discipline of a much larger garrison, 
it was from the first a peaceful retreat ; a life interspersed 
with much blithe pleasuring and love-making, with social 
events, informal but charming. 

The commanding officer was invariably a man who 
could be depended upon to keep up the dignity of the 
post, and if a bit overbearing in enforcing discipline, for 
military law governed Green Bay in the first ten years of 



O/d Green Bay 



the garrison's existence, he was nut lacking in the line 
courtesies of Hfe. So Fort Howard set the pace in so- 
ciety and municipal government, and helped still more to 
make Green Bay what the courcur de bois had called it 
from very early times, " The City " ; where the chance 
traveller was certain to find cordial welcome and excellent 
diversion so long as he chose to stay. There was ever a 
lurking danger of an uprising of the large Indian popu- 
lation surrounding the fort, but it only served to give life 
zest and furnish a picturesque feature when the red- 
skins bartered furs or maple sugar at the sally-port, or 
played lacrosse for the amusement of the garrison and 
its guests. 

From this green and quiet spot many of the younger 
officers went to meet death on the sun-baked plains of 
Mexico, many made noble records in the Civil War, but 
ever through the heat and turmoil of later years echoed 
the memory of the old Green Bay post. 

The white cantonment gleaming against its background 
of forest, Christ Church with its square, straight-backed 
pew^s, to which every Sunday morning, rain or shine, the 
troops w^ere marched in stiff holiday attire, and the wide 
river highway on which the government barge lay ready 
manned, the rowers napping on their oars during the long 
drowsy stuiimer afternoons, till a whistle from the sentry 
on the sally-j)ort gave notice that the officers and their 
ladies proposed to make a call on civilian friends in .Meno- 
mineeville. 




Fort Howard in 1863 
22 



old Green Bay 




Fart of General Taylor's Dinner Set 

Here and there, through letters and bits of manuscript, 
we glean the story of old Fort Howard, and the folk who 
lived and found life pleasant there in days gone by. Now 
it is a tweeting glimpse of Governor Lewis Cass landing 
at the pier with a distinguished party, or Captain Marryat 
at the height of his literary fame dining with Captain 
Cleary and his pretty wife. Here is an invitation to 
Reverend Eleazer Williams for a theatrical entertainment, 
the first given in Wisconsin, on which occasion a youthful 
lieutenant makes his debut as " Miss Hardcastle " in the 
" School for Scandal " ; and another letter that never 
reached its destination, written aw^ay back in the twenties 
and bearing a w^ild appeal from young Lieutenant Loring 
to Caroline Whistler, daughter of the commanding officer. 

Then we read of a rout in the long dancing-hall, and 
Colonel Hugh Brady, that veteran of many battles, is lead- 
ing off in Money Musk, regardless of his years and wood- 
en leg. The pretty creole girls from La Baye are there in 
full force, and charming Americans from Shanty-town. 

2 3 



Old Green Bay 



" All the jolly tides of laughter 
Fall and ebb in a happy smile." 

The hoarse clamor of the frogs comes from the marsh 
to the northward, mingled with the lapping of the river 
and the manifold murmurs of the great surrounding forest, 
but within — 

" 'Tis Money Musk by merrie feet 
And the Money Musk by heart." 

The music throbs rhythmically, and we have the word 
of one who often trod a measure in those old days, that it 
was entrancing. 

" All swiftly weave the measure deft 
Across the woof in loving weft, 
And the Money Musk is done. " 

The candles waver and darken, the nnisic dies, march- 
ing orders come, and the whole picture is swept away like 
a vapor. 

" Good-night sweethearts, 'tis growing dusk, 
Good-night for aye to Money Musk, 
For the heavy march begun." 




Fort Howard. Surgeons' Quarters 
24 




James U. Uotv s KesiiifiiLL- .ir Menomineeville 



JAMES DUANE DOTY, the first American who held 
the ofiice of Judge in the Green Bay district, received 
liis appointment on February i, 1823, with jurisdic- 
tion extending from MichiHmackinac to Prairie du 
Chien. 

Previous to this time the law courts in this section were 
conducted in somewhat indifferent style. 

At Green Bay Judge Jacques Porlier was the incumbent, 
a man of education and painstaking in the discharge of 
his duties, but much hampered by his inal)ility to speak the 
English language. 




Henry S. Baird's Office. 

25 



d'^'"'- 


"a 


}^^g»-'^x:j]g 


"^Rffp 


m 


L.i^1r 


• II 



James D. Dots' s Otiice 



Under Judge Doty the judiciary rose at once to dignity 
and importance. In canoe or on horseliack, as the case 
might be, he and his coadjutor, Henry S. 15aird, first of 
Wisconsin lawyers, travelled their extended circuit, hold- 
ing terms of court in Mackinac, the Prairie, and Green 
Bay. 



20 




Ruins of the Ag encv House 



"The woodbine tvith the lilae interlaced. 

The sturdy burdock choked its slender neighbor 

The spicy pink. 

All traces were effaced 

Of human care and labour. ' ' 

BUILT in 1825 by James D. Doty, and sold two years 
later to the Government, to be used as a residence 
for the agent of Indian afifairs. It was the first 
frame dwelling erected in Wisconsin. 

The agents sent out by the Government at an early day 
to look after the welfare of the Bay Indians were, for the 
most part, men of dignity and reputation. 

Colonel George Boyd, the incumbent at the time the 
Agency house burned in 1838, was in especial a note- 
worthy character, a man of sharp individuality, who 
brought to his work education, good breeding, and ability. 
Shortly after Colonel Boyd's appointment to the Green 
Bay post occurred the Black Hawk outbreak. Around 
the Agency house gathered the friendly Indians of the 
vicinity, and here they camped during the summer of 1832, 
fishing the river during the day, and at night practising 
hideous war-dances, to the monotonous beat of the Indian 
drum. 

27 



Old Green Bay 



Across the river lies Ashwaubenon Creek, made historic 
by the legend of the young Ottawa warrior, Ash-wau-be- 
mie, who rescued the maiden, ]Morning Star, when the 
fierce Chippewas stole her from her own tribe. 

The old chief of the Menominees. Ah-kee-nee-be-way, 
rewarded the youth's valor and diplomacy by giving to 
him Wau-be-nuk-qua (Morning Star) for a wife, at the 
same time bestowing upon him a grant of land, running 
from Ashwaubenon River to the foot of the Des Peres 
rapids. 

Until quite recent years Ash-wau-be-mie's descend- 
ants, the La Rose family, were still in possession of 
his original grant of land. 

Up the green bank that slopes to the river 
tripped one summer morning seventy-odd 
years ago pretty Marie Brevoort, the agent's 
daughter. After dancing all night at a 
garrison ball, she and her escort. Lieuten- 
ant Kirby Smith, undertook to reach home 
in a small row-boat, in preference to the 
roomy government barge. 

A storm swept Fox River, the fine clothes 
of the revellers were drenched with rain, 
their cockle craft nearly capsized and filled 
with water, and they were finally forced to 
wade ashore. There was a stern parent in 
waiting at the other end of the line, for 
Colonel Brevoort was noted as a strict disciplinarian, and 
held a tight rein over his handsome, wayward daughter. 
Yet with all these drawbacks, it was a light-hearted and 
plucky pair who climbed to the Agency house as the sun 
rose over the eastern forest. 

We hardly care to recall that Kirl)y Smith, twenty years 
later, fell mortally wounded in the fatal charge at Molino 
del Rey, or that Marie Brevoort married wealth and in- 
fluence and left frontier life for a seacoast home. 

It is just a glimpse of youth and brightness and inno- 
cent frolic, of which there were many such touches when 
Fort Howard and the fur trade ruled Crccn Bav. 





wammmmmmmm 

The old John Lawe Mansion, now owned by David H. Grignon 



THE house looms up ag'ainst the sky as though 
sketched in charcoal — all deep, soft tones of black 
and gray. 

It was built in 1836 by Judge John Lawe, and replaced 
an earlier one of logs, that stood some twenty feet to the 
northward. On a green patch of sward that stretched to 
the river stood in those days the John Lawe trading-house, 
where in spring-time the Indians flung down great peltry 
packs, in payment for strouds, blankets, firearms, and gew- 
gaws, purchased by them the preceding autumn. 

No better picture of fur-trading times could be given 
than through one of Lawe's letters, written to a constitu- 
ent in the American Fur Company, and preserved in the 
archives of the State Historical Society. It is late in 
November, the " Tygre " and " Pontiac " have made the 
last trip of the season, and Green Bay has relapsed into 
winter isolation ; the weather is lowering, and an epi- 
demic of small-pox threatens the little village. Fort 
Howard insists upon strict quarantine, so that pleasant 
social intercourse between military and civilian has ceased 
for the time being. The trading-house as he writes is full 

29 



old Green Bay 



of drunken Indians, squabbling, ill-smelling, and striking 
bargains, which, to do them justice, they usually kept to 
the letter. 

But the outlook was not always so grim. There were 
merry-makings, many and gay, in the great wide-cham- 
bered house, and an ever present, large-hearted hospital- 
ity that included alike stranger and familiar friend, and re- 
sembled, in its lavish observance, traditionary plantation 
life before the war. 




The PoUv Lawc Fiano 



30 




The Tank Cottage 



THE old house stands not a stone's throw from Fox 
River. On either side the low-lying shore is 
claimed by saw-mills and stacks of lumber, but just 
about the cottage all remains undisturbed, while wild rice 
and rushes on the water side form, in summer, a green 
barrier murmured over by birds and whispered to by 
wandering winds as in the days, ninety years ago, when 
the foundation logs of the structure were laid. A gener- 
ous stone chimney stands at either gable, the small-paned 
square windows have solid wooden shutters, painted a dull 
green, and the roof, which slopes low and joins that of the 
rickety piazza at a queer angle, is tinted a dull brown by 
years and weather. Never in its most prosperous days 
could the house have been a noticeable feature in the land- 
scape; just a comfortable home for a retired voyageur — 
small, snug, and accessible to the river highway ; but 
time, the busy architect, has shaped it and colored it in 
harmony with trees and sedge and river, so that the eye 
rests upon it gratefully, so wholly has it become a part of 
nature. 

Its builder was one of the Roy family very early in the 
present century, but the first known occupant was Jacques 
Porlier, an educated Frenchman, who came to Baye Verte 

31 



old Green Bay 



in 1795, and gained the distinction of being- the first 
school-master west of Lake Michigan, and later by ap- 
pointment of Governor Cass, judge of the first court 
established under American government. 

During the war of 1812, when England, conscious that 
the seaboard territory was lost to her, still held on desper- 
ately to her Northwest possessions, the Fox River settle- 
ment of some two hundred souls was fiercely loyal to King 
George, and Porlier, with his neighbors, served under the 
royal flag; but war times became a thing of the past, 
American settlers crowded westward, an American fort 
exercised military rule throughout the Fox River valley: 
while to and fro, from Michilimackinac to Green Bay, 
swe])t the long black pointed bateaux belonging to the 
American Fur Company, manned by crews of chanting 
voyagciirs — a picturesque and inspiring sight. Porlier 
acted as agent for this far-reaching monopoly, and from 
his small-paned windows could watch the ebb and flow of 
country traffic ; see Indian canoes skimming like great 
water-flies up and down the brimming river, going forth 
in shoals when autumn came, to the winter hunt, and in 
spring time, after the ice broke up, returning weighted 
with peltries. 

Unfamiliarity with practical business methods proved 
rather disastrous to native traders in their dealings with 
the Astor Company, and at his death Porlier owned little 
of the valuable land acquired by him at an early day ; but 
his house withstood x\merican encroachment better than 
its owner, and passed into the possession of Otto Tank, 
a Norwegian gentleman, who hoped to found a colony of 
his countrymen on the shores of Fox River. The cabin 
was enlarged by the addition of two wings, that to the 
north being used for religious purposes and called a 
prayer room. 

Gradually the interior underwent a change complete 
and marvellous, for Tank's wnfe belonged to the wealthy 
and distinguished Dutch family of Von Botzlaer, and 
year by year ocean vessels brought to American ports 
coffers of oak and cedar, and curious Holland chests 



Old Green Bay 



packed closely with all manner of ancient and rare house- 
hold furnishings, all bearing the address of a little out-of- 
the-way place called " Green Bay, Lake Michigan, Wis- 
consin." 

Strolling through the rooms in this later time one can 
recall their former individuality. Here to the left, where 
the gaping fire-place of French habitant days is thriftily 
buttoned in with a tin fireboard, the floor is lowered sev- 
eral inches to allow for the height of a tall clock of superb 
finish in carved wood and brass mountings. In yonder 
corner stood an old wheezy piano, spindle-legged and un- 
dersized after the fashion of an old time spinriet, and di- 
rectly opposite an inlaid ebony writing-desk presented by 
Princess Pauline of Holland to Madame Tank's mother, 
who for many years served as maid of honor to her High- 
ness. There were heavy mahogany arm-chairs, a massive 
claw-foot table, and on the floor a Persian rug, its deep, 
rich coloring strangely out of place in the low-ceilinged 
apartment. 

In 1891, Madame Tank, last of her family, died, and the 
old house with the remainder of her extensive property 
was sold, her will directing that the proceeds should be 
donated to the Society for Foreign Missions. The hand- 
some antique silver, furniture, and jewelry were sent to 
Chicago, and there brought large prices among curio 
lovers, while in the Art Institute of that city stands to- 
day the beautiful marquetry cabinet, which, when it 
graced the tumbledown wing of the cottage, was packed 
with Holland linen and gowns of stifif brocade. But the 
cream of the rare collection — fine porcelains and pottery, 
pewter, brass, and spelter ware, cut glass and satinv Dutch 
napery — was sold at auction in Green Bay and will make 
the city a Mecca for a hundred years to come to collectors 
of ceramics and primitive Holland furnishings. 

Meantime the quaint dwelling, kept in careful preserva- 
tion, custodian of a never-to-be-repeated past, bids fair to 
stand the seasons of another century — an interesting mon- 
ument of one of our city's earliest pioneers, and a reminder 
of a family antedating that period by many generations. 




> lirtin Homestead 

THE Martin homestead, erected in 1837 by Mor- 
gan L. Martin. To the south is the grove, where, 
tradition tells, pagan Indians held in ancient days 
their sacrifices. The house is built in colonial style, the 
heavy grooved woodwork being made entirely by hand. 
It was furnished, originally, with a basement kitchen, and 
the great kitchen fireplace, with wide hearth, crane, and 
brick oven, is still intact. 

Named " Hazelwood " because of the tangle of hazel 
bushes that covered the hillside. 



34 




Tlif \\'hitiu-\ Houjt 



" Loved of wise men was the shade of this roof- tree, 
The true word of welcome was spoken at the door — 
Dear days of old, with the faces in the firelight, 
Kind folks of old you come again no more." 

THE Whitney house was the first built in Navarino. 
The plat of this prospective city was made in 
1829 by Daniel Whitney, and its boundaries were 
Doty Street to the south and the great marsh across Devil 
River to the north. 

The land extending south, between Doty and Grignon 
Streets, was owned by the American Fur Company, and 
known as the town of Astor. 

A fierce jealousy existed between the two embryo cities, 
but they were ultimately united in 1838 under the name of 
the borough of Green Bay. 

35 




Old Stone Tower 



Thk Oi.u Stone Tower 



THE sands of Long Tail Point shift with every 
passing season. Sometimes the island stretches 
out a long green finger to the southward, and again 
the waters of Green Bay ripple almost to the foot of the 
old stone tower that has stood sentinel for many years 
over its changeful surroundings. Gray and grim and dis- 
mantled it rises among the glistening green of tall grasses 
and reeds that fringe the sand-dunes around it. 

It looks as though it might have a story to impart dating 
back a century or more, but investigation brings to light 
the fact that it was really built during the forties for a 
government light-house. The stones were laid and ce- 
mented as strongly as though it were to stand as a place 
of defence. 

There were winding stairs that led to the summit lighted 
at intervals by narrow loop-holes and a great iron lantern 
fitted with small panes of glass held the beacon light. It 
was dreary work for the keeper on a wild night to cross 

36 



old Green Bay 



from his little house hard by, in order to trim the lamp 
at midnight. Compared with the highly improved meth- 
ods of modern light-houses, the primitive oil-lamp seems 
meagre and unsatisfactory enough, but its rays were a 
welcome sight to the mariner who, in sailing craft or 
steamer, battled through the uncertain channels of the Bay. 

On every fair day during the summer season shoals of 
pleasure-seekers visit the rugged old tower and speculate 
as to its history. 

When a hundred years or more have passed, doubtless 
tradition and romance will render doubly interesting what 
is even now a remarkably picturesque ruin. 




Sailing Ciatt 



37 





VHl 



Buiit in L.ipt.im Jiilm (..ittuji m 1^4: 



T 



HE aspect of this venerable mansion has always 
affected me like a human countenance, bearing 
traces not merely of outward storm and sunsliine, 
but expressive also of the long lapse of human life and 
accompanying vicissitudes that have passed within ; were 
these to be worthily recounted, they would form a narra- 
tive of no small interest and instruction." 




The Hagemeister Doorway. Built bv A. G. Ellis, 1835 
38 




"**«9WXf?J"; 



'^^Alf'.-i^'^^ I 



The Old Jourdam 

SOME forty years ago there appeared in " Putnam's 
Magazine " a bit of interesting historical evidence. 
Through well authenticated data the author, Rever- 
end Doctor Hanson, sought to prove that Louis XVII., of 
France, the little Dauphin whose last hours had remained 
shrouded in mystery, did not in reality die in the Temple 
Prison. 

The royalists, so ran the story, had substituted another 
child in place of the Prince, who had been spirited to 
America, placed with an Indian tribe near Saint Regis, 
Canada, and was at that time — 1853 — serving as mission- 
ary' to the Oneidas under the name of Eleazer Williams. 

Five miles from De Pere, on a height overlooking the 
rapids of Little Kakalin, stood until the summer of 1897 
the ruined homestead of the reputed Dauphin — just four 
log walls over which a great tree spread protecting arms, 
as though to shield and make one with itself, this rough 
fragment of man's constructive skill. 

Fifty-eight years have passed since gay Prince de Join- 
ville and his following of French officers galloped down 
this same road, after their taste of Green Bay hospitality 
and interview with the mysterious clergyman. The con- 
tradictory crossfire of argument that blazed up smartly 

39 



old Grrrn Bay 



over the Bourbon pretensions, a half century back, has 
died down to ashes, yet the story still cling-s to the im- 
agination and hammer though the iconoclast may at this 
figment of royalty, certain significant facts connected with 
Williams's history defy prosaic explanation. 

A dozen years ago the old house on the river remained 
practically as it had been during the life-time of the orig- 
inal owner. In its quaint form and furnishings it served 
as interesting environment for the traditionary and im- 
posing figure of Priest Williams, with his striking re- 
semblance in feature to the Bourbons, his dignity and 
charm of manner. 

The house was solidly built of hewn logs, the raftered 
rooms were low and mean, the windows were set with tiny 
panes of imperfect glass, indeed, the entire dwelling in- 
dicated crude workmanshi]) and a poverty-stricken purse. 
But from the depths of a dim corner one caught the gleam 
of an old-fashioned gilt frame mirror, and substantial 
spindle-backed chairs stood straight and comely against 
the whitewashed w^alls. Tall brass firedogs of majestic 
proportions, and others of iron, lilliputian in size, sur- 
mounted by tiny brass knobs, shone forth from the black- 
ened interiors of rude stone fireplaces. The table appoint- 
ments were as far removed from the primitive contriv- 
ances of an Indian wigwam as one can well imagine. The 

tl inner service 
*'!^>: was in that nice 

old Stafi'ordshire 
ware, sent forth 
by Job Ridgway & 
Sons in the latter 
part of the eigh- 
teenth century, 
decorated in deep 
blue azure with a 
varied panorama 
of river and 
heights and man- 

The house was solidly built ot hewn logs darill peopled 

40 




O/d Green Bay 



junks and pagodas. Did 
there chance to be a brew 
of tea in the missionary's 
modest larder it was 
poured from a Britannia 
pot of most aUuring design 
and served in cups of pink- 
lustre, flaring delicately at 
the edge, or in others of 
opaque white ware, sprin- 
kled with tiny knots of 
flowers in pale blue relief. 
A visit to the cob- 
webbed garret brought to 
light books and manuscript 
that revived an interesting 
past. Bulky brown vol- 
umes that filled the place 
of romances to literary folk 
in the seventeenth century, 
each with its sionificant book 





Tureen belonging to Williams's Dinner 

41 



Eleazer Williams 

-plate, old journals dating 
back to 1666, proper- 
ty of the Williams 
family in Massachvi- 
setts, and sermons 
preached by New 
England divines a 
century before. 

Of these family ser- 
mons it is said the 
wily Eleazer made 
capital on his own ac- 
count and thundered 
them forth to his meek 
Indian converts at 
Oneida mission or in 
chapel service at Fort 
Howard, while prayer 

set was read from an en- 



O/d Green Bay 



ormous sheepskin bound volume, " Presented to the Rev- 
erend Mr, Wilhams by the rector, wardens, and ves*ry of 
King's Chapel in Boston." 

Calvinistic doctrine was, however, strangely out of keep- 
ing with the look and bearing of Cure Williams. He was 
no Pui'itan ascetic, but an accepted type of good comrade, 
fond of " dinings " in garrison with the gay officers of 
Fort Howard, and of reunions in the village of La Baye 
with the jovial Creole kinfolk of Madame Williams. 

Toward the close of life, under the heavy lash of old 
age and poverty, retrospection transmuted the years spent 
in his isolated cottage on Fox River into the happiest of 
Williams's life, yet when he looked forth from his low- 
eaved porch upon the fair view of water and islet and 
wooded bank opposite, it was with only a vague compre- 
hension of its beauty. The place was marred for him by 
restless longings and illusive vagaries until the narrow 
confines of his habitant cabin became intolerable, and he 
wandered forth never to return, in true voyageiir fashion, 
foot loose, light of purse, but inspired by the interest of 
his quest, a typical adventurer. 



42 




A Bit of Holland 

A Bit of Holland 

THE stone wind-mill was built in 1850, to be used 
as a grist mill. It never proved a success, as it 
stood too low to catch any breeze except that com- 
ing from off the bay, and after waiting a day for a west- 
erly wind a countryman would be forced to carry home 
his bag of wheat unground. The mill's greatest capacity 
was ten bushels per day, the grain being simply cracked 
with no separation of bran or middlings. 

The erection of a water-power mill, a half day's journey 
away, was a death-blow to the old mill, for, although the 
new one ground slow, it was sure, and the necessity of 
waiting for a grinding wind was unknown. 



43 




The Lawton House. Built in 1858 by Joseph G. Lawton 

" r I ^llE old home stands on the river liank in a grove 

I of oaks, the growth of more than a century. 

M The house is large, built of stone in the hospitable 

style of fifty years ago, with broad halls, endless suites 

of rooms, deep windows, and large chimneys." 



4-4 



L.ofC. 





^^^^^■■IB^HH 




* i^ * 




^ 



A Typical Green Bay Street 



<' Where^ the long drooping boughs be- 
tween^ 
Shadows dark and sunlight sheen 
h^lternately come and goT 



45 




I 



Octagon House 

HA\'E a love for the out-of-the-way places of the 
earth when they bristle all over with the quaint and 
the odd and the old, and are mouldy with the pict- 




OUi Brewery 
46 




B 



UT here is an in-the-way place, all sunshine and 
shimmer, with never a fringe of mould upon it, 
and vet vou lose vour heart at a glance. " 



Ittp^^' 






.>^ ,. -)« ii!ik£fil 


H^^^ 






F -^ 


. • "'^^V.^ 




.^^^ 


r«f-. . 






' ^B 




yi^^ttl 


MHhHI 




. 4 


' ^ll 


L 





A. v.. Robinson Residence 
47 




Iruin Homestead. Built in 1836 bv Charles Brush 



d: 



OWN the lon<^ vista of years comes the memory 
I of tlie old mansion chiefly as it was wont to look 
on a midsummer afternoon, when the ragged 
pinks were in fiower and the trees cast deep shadows on 
the cool grass. And yet this pleasant picture is only after 
all a blended and harmonious background for the kindly 
people who lived under this rooftree their happy and sor- 
rowful days ; for it is human life and influence that colors 
our associations with any spot and creates the interest 
that surrounds it." 



4S 




Built bv Randall Wilcox 



THERE is some, of 
the same fitness in 
a man's building 
his own house that there is 
in a bird's building its own 
nest. What of aichitectural 
beauty I now see, I know 
has gradually grown from 
within outward, out of the 
necessities and character of 
the indweller, who is the 
only builder. It is the life 
of the inhabitants whose 
shells they are, and not any 
peculiarity in their surfaces 
merely, which makes them 
picturesque." 




The Whitney Doorway. Built in 
1835 by Ebbitt 



49 



+ 


CHELTENHAM 


F 


< 




i 

O 


+ NEW-YORK Vft A 


+ 



Arranged and Printed at 

The Cheltenham Press 

25 West nth Street 

New York 



SEP 18 1901 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



016 098 090 4 



•v*^. 



